Introduction to this collection

The long nineteenth century was a revolutionary epoch. This collection provides a global view of these revolutionary changes and focuses on the networks and communities frames.

Guiding question to think about as you read the documents: Explain the extent to which the revolutionary transformations of the long nineteenth century impacted communities and networks.

WHP Primary Source Punctuation Key

When you read through these primary source collections, you might notice some unusual punctuation like this: . . . and [ ] and ( ). Use the table below to help you understand what this punctuation means.

Contents

Source 1 – Bolivar’s Letter from Jamaica, 1815 (0:35)

Source 2 – Principles of Communism, 1847 (6:35)

Source 3 – French Declaration of the Rights of Man, 1789 (12:10)

Source 4 – Wealth of Nations, 1776 (20:05)

Source 5 – Olympe de Gouge’s Declaration of the Rights of Woman, 1791 (25:30)

Source 6 – United States Declaration of Independence, 1776 (30:30)

Source 7 – Pasquinades against the government, c. 1770–1781 (36:20)

Source 8 – The Native Question, 1857 (39:50)

Source 9 – “The Borinqueña”, 1868 (44:55)

Source 10 – Oath taken by members of Young Italy, 1832 (47:50)

Source 11 – Travels in the Slavonic provinces of Turkey-in-Europe, 1866 (53:30)

Source 1 – Bolivar’s Letter from Jamaica, 1815 (0:35)

Guiding question

Explain the extent to which the revolutionary transformations of the long nineteenth century impacted communities and networks.

Excerpt

Reply of a South American to a Gentleman of this Island [Jamaica]

Kingston, Jamaica, September 6, 1815.

My dear Sir:

With what a feeling of gratitude I read that passage in your letter in which you say to me: “I hope that the success which then followed Spanish arms may now turn in favor of their adversaries, the badly oppressed people of South America.” I take this hope as a prediction, if it is justice that determines man’s contests. Success will crown our efforts, because the destiny of America has been irrevocably decided; the tie that bound her to Spain has been severed. …

[W]e are threatened with the fear of death, dishonor, and every harm; there is nothing we have not suffered at the hands of that unnatural stepmother—Spain. … We have already seen the light, and it is not our desire to be thrust back into darkness. The chains have been broken; we have been freed, and now our enemies seek to enslave us anew. For this reason America fights desperately, and seldom has desperation failed to achieve victory. …

16,000,000 Americans either defend their rights or suffer repression at the hands of Spain, which, although once the world’s greatest empire, is now too weak, with what little is left her, to rule the new hemisphere or even to maintain herself in the old. …

The role of the inhabitants of the American hemisphere has for centuries been purely passive. Politically they were nonexistent. … America was denied not only its freedom but even an active and effective tyranny. Let me explain.

Under absolutism there are no recognized limits to the exercise of governmental powers. The will of the great sultan, khan, bey, and other despotic rulers is the supreme law, carried out more or less arbitrarily by the lesser pashas, khans, and satraps of Turkey and Persia, who have an organized system of oppression in which inferiors participate according to the authority vested in them. To them is entrusted the administration of civil, military, political, religious, and tax matters. But, after all is said and done, the rulers of Isfahan are Persians; the viziers of the Grand Turk are Turks; and the sultans of Tartary are Tartars.

Americans today … who live within the Spanish system occupy a position in society no better than that of serfs destined for labor, or at best they have no more status than that of mere consumers. Yet even this status is surrounded with galling restrictions, such as being forbidden to grow European crops … do you wish to know what our future held?—Simply the cultivation of the fields of indigo, grain, coffee, sugar cane, cacao, and cotton; cattle raising on the broad plains; hunting wild game in the jungles; digging in the earth to mine its gold—but even these limitations could never satisfy the greed of Spain. …

More than anyone, I desire to see America fashioned into the greatest nation in the world, greatest not so much by virtue of her area and wealth as by her freedom and glory. Although I seek perfection for the government of my country, I cannot persuade myself that the New World can, at the moment, be organized as a great republic. …

It is a grandiose idea to think of consolidating the New World into a single nation, united by pacts into a single bond. It is reasoned that, as these parts have a common origin, language, customs, and religion, they ought to have a single government to permit the newly formed states to unite in a confederation. But this is not possible. Actually, climatic differences, geographic diversity, conflicting interests, and dissimilar characteristics separate America. … Would to God that some day we may have the good fortune to convene there an august assembly of representatives of republics, kingdoms, and empires to deliberate upon the high interests of peace and war with the nations of the other three-quarters of the globe.

Citation

Source 2 – Principles of Communism, 1847 (6:35)

Guiding question

Explain the extent to which the revolutionary transformations of the long nineteenth century impacted communities and networks.

Excerpt

What were the immediate consequences of the industrial revolution and of the division of society into bourgeoisie and proletariat?

In this way, big industry has brought all the people of the Earth into contact with each other, has merged all local markets into one market, … and has thus ensured that whatever happens in civilized countries will have repercussions in all other countries.

It follows that if the workers in England or France now liberate themselves, this must set off revolution in all other countries—revolutions which, sooner or later, must accomplish the liberation of their respective working class.

Second, wherever big industries displaced manufacture, the bourgeoisie developed in wealth and power to the utmost and made itself the first class of the country. …

The bourgeoisie annihilated the power of the aristocracy, the nobility … It destroyed the power of the guildmasters by abolishing guilds and handicraft privileges. In their place, it put competition—that is, a state of society in which everyone has the right to enter into any branch of industry, the only obstacle being a lack of necessary capital.

The introduction of free competition is thus public declaration that from now on the members of society are unequal only to the extent that their capitals are unequal, … and that therefore the capitalists, the bourgeoisie, have become the first class of society. …

Having destroyed the social power of the nobility and guildmasters, the bourgeois also destroyed their political power. … This it does through the introduction of the representative system which rests on bourgeois equality before the law and the recognition of free competition … only those who possess a certain capital are voters—that is to say, only members of the bourgeoisie. …

Third, everywhere the proletariat develops in step with the bourgeoisie. In proportion, as the bourgeoisie grows in wealth, the proletariat grows in numbers. …

Simultaneously, this process draws members of the bourgeoisie and proletarians together into the great cities where industry can be carried on most profitably, and by thus throwing great masses in one spot it gives to the proletarians a consciousness of their own strength.

Moreover, the further this process advances, the more new labor-saving machines are invented, the greater the pressure is exercised by big industry on wages, which as we have seen, sink their minimum and therewith render the condition of the proletariat increasingly unbearable. The growing dissatisfaction of the proletariat thus joins with its rising power to prepare a proletarian social revolution.

What will this new social order have to be like?

Above all, it will have to take the control of industry and of all branches of production out of the hands of mutually competing individuals, and instead institute a system in which all these branches of production are operated by society as a whole—that is, for the common account, according to a common plan, and with the participation of all members of society.

It will, in other words, abolish competition and replace it with association.

Moreover, since the management of industry by individuals necessarily implies private property, and since competition is in reality merely the manner and form in which the control of industry by private property owners expresses itself, it follows that private property cannot be separated from competition and the individual management of industry. Private property must, therefore, be abolished and in its place must come the common utilization of instruments of production and distribution of all products according to common agreement—in a word, what is called the communal ownership of goods.

Citation

Source 3 – French Declaration of the Rights of Man, 1789 (12:10)

Guiding question

Explain the extent to which the revolutionary transformations of the long nineteenth century impacted communities and networks.

Excerpt

Approved by the National Assembly of France, August 26, 1789

The representatives of the French people, organized as a National Assembly, believing that the ignorance, neglect, or contempt of the rights of man are the sole cause of public calamities and of the corruption of governments, have determined to set forth in a solemn declaration the natural, unalienable, and sacred rights of man, in order that this declaration, being constantly before all the members of the Social body, shall remind them continually of their right s and duties; in order that the acts of the legislative power, as well as those of the executive power, may be compared at any moment with the objects and purposes of all political institutions and may thus be more respected, and, lastly, in order that the grievances of the citizens, based hereafter upon simple and incontestable principles, shall tend to the maintenance of the constitution and redound to the happiness of all. Therefore the National Assembly recognizes and proclaims, in the presence and under the auspices of the Supreme Being, the following rights of man and of the citizen:

Articles:

1. Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions may be founded only upon the general good.
2. The aim of all political association is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man. These rights are liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression.
3. The principle of all sovereignty resides essentially in the nation. No body nor individual may exercise any authority which does not proceed directly from the nation.
4. Liberty consists in the freedom to do everything which injures no one else; hence the exercise of the natural rights of each man has no limits except those which assure to the other members of the society the enjoyment of the same rights. These limits can only be determined by law.
5. Law can only prohibit such actions as are hurtful to society. Nothing may be prevented which is not forbidden by law, and no one may be forced to do anything not provided for by law.
6. Law is the expression of the general will. Every citizen has a right to participate personally, or through his representative, in its foundation. It must be the same for all, whether it protects or punishes. All citizens, being equal in the eyes of the law, are equally eligible to all dignities and to all public positions and occupations, according to their abilities, and without distinction except that of their virtues and talents.
7. No person shall be accused, arrested, or imprisoned except in the cases and according to the forms prescribed by law. Any one soliciting, transmitting, executing, or causing to be executed, any arbitrary order, shall be punished. But any citizen summoned or arrested in virtue of the law shall submit without delay, as resistance constitutes an offense.
8. The law shall provide for such punishments only as are strictly and obviously necessary, and no one shall suffer punishment except it be legally inflicted in virtue of a law passed and promulgated before the commission of the offense.
9. As all persons are held innocent until they shall have been declared guilty, if arrest shall be deemed indispensable, all harshness not essential to the securing of the prisoner’s person shall be severely repressed by law.
10. No one shall be disquieted on account of his opinions, including his religious views, provided their manifestation does not disturb the public order established by law.
11. The free communication of ideas and opinions is one of the most precious of the rights of man. Every citizen may, accordingly, speak, write, and print with freedom, but shall be responsible for such abuses of this freedom as shall be defined by law.
12. The security of the rights of man and of the citizen requires public military forces. These forces are, therefore, established for the good of all and not for the personal advantage of those to whom they shall be intrusted.¹
13. A common contribution is essential for the maintenance of the public forces and for the cost of administration. This should be equitably distributed among all the citizens in proportion to their means.
14. All the citizens have a right to decide, either personally or by their representatives, as to the necessity of the public contribution; to grant this freely; to know to what uses it is put; and to fix the proportion, the mode of assessment and of collection and the duration of the taxes.
15. Society has the right to require of every public agent an account of his administration.
16. A society in which the observance of the law is not assured, nor the separation of powers defined, has no constitution at all.
17. Since property is an inviolable and sacred right, no one shall be deprived thereof except where public necessity, legally determined, shall clearly demand it, and then only on condition that the owner shall have been previously and equitably indemnified.

Citation

1 intrusted is an archaic spelling of entrusted

Source 4 – Wealth of Nations, 1776 (20:05)

Guiding question

Explain the extent to which the revolutionary transformations of the long nineteenth century impacted communities and networks.

Excerpt

Every individual is continually exerting himself to find out the most advantageous employment for whatever capital he can command. It is his own advantage, indeed, and not that of the society, which he has in his view. But the study of his own advantage naturally, or rather necessarily leads him to prefer that employment which is most advantageous to the society. …

As every individual, therefore, endeavours as much as he can both to employ his capital in the support of domestic industry, and so to direct that industry that its produce may be of the greatest value; every individual necessarily labours to render the annual revenue of the society as great as he can. He generally, indeed, neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it. By preferring the support of domestic to that of foreign industry, he intends only his own security; and by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention. Nor is it always the worse for the society that it was no part of it. By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it. I have never known much good done by those who affected to trade for the public good. It is an affectation, indeed, not very common among merchants, and very few words need be employed in dissuading them from it.

What is the species of domestic industry which his capital can employ, and of which the produce is likely to be of the greatest value, every individual, it is evidence, can, in his local situation, judge much better than any statesman or lawgiver can do for him. The statesman, who should attempt to direct private people in what manner they ought to employ their capitals, would not only load himself with a most unnecessary attention, but assume an authority which could safely be trusted, not only to no single person, but to no council or senate whatever, and which would no-where be so dangerous as in the hands of a man who had folly and presumption enough to fancy himself fit to exercise it.

To give the monopoly of the home-market to the produce of domestic industry, in any particular art or manufacture, is in some measure to direct private people in what manner they ought to employ their capitals, and must, in almost all cases, be either a useless or hurtful regulation. If the produce of domestic can be brought there as cheap as that of foreign industry, the regulation is evidently useless. If it cannot, it must generally be hurtful. It is the maxim of every prudent master of a family, never to attempt to make at home what it will cost him more to make than to buy. …

According to this liberal and generous system, therefore, the most advantageous method in which a landed nation can raise up artificers, manufacturers and merchants of its own, is to grant the most perfect freedom of trade to … [them]. …

When a landed nation, on the contrary, oppresses either by high duties [tariffs/taxes] or by prohibitions, the trade of foreign nations, it necessarily hurts its own interest …

Citation

Source 5 – Olympe de Gouge’s Declaration of the Rights of Woman, 1791 (25:30)

Guiding question

Explain the extent to which the revolutionary transformations of the long nineteenth century impacted communities and networks.

Excerpt

Woman, wake up; the [signal bell] of reason is being heard throughout the whole universe; discover your rights. The powerful empire of nature is no longer surrounded by prejudice, fanaticism, superstition, and lies. The flame of truth has dispersed all the clouds of folly and usurpation. Enslaved man has multiplied his strength and needs recourse to yours to break his chains. Having become free, he has become unjust to his companion. Oh, women, women! When will you cease to be blind? What advantage have you received from the Revolution? A more pronounced scorn, a more marked disdain. In the centuries of corruption you ruled only over the weakness of men. The reclamation of your patrimony, based on the wise decrees of nature—what have you to dread from such a fine undertaking? … Do you fear that our French legislators, correctors of that morality, long ensnared by political practices now out of date, will only say again to you: women, what is there in common between you and us? Everything, you will have to answer. If they persist in their weakness in putting this non sequitur in contradiction to their principles, courageously oppose the force of reason to the empty pretentions of superiority; unite yourselves beneath the standards of philosophy; deploy all the energy of your character, and you will soon see these haughty men, not groveling at your feet as servile adorers, but proud to share with you the treasures of the Supreme Being. Regardless of what barriers confront you, it is in your power to free yourselves; you have only to want to. …

[T]he way can be prepared through national education, the restoration of morals, and conjugal conventions …

We … unite ourselves for the duration of our lives, and for the duration of our mutual inclinations, under the following conditions: We intend and wish to make our wealth communal, meanwhile reserving to ourselves the right to divide it in favor of our children and of those toward whom we might have a particular inclination, mutually recognizing that our property belongs directly to our children, from whatever bed they come, and that all of them without distinction have the right to bear the name of the fathers and mothers who have acknowledged them, and we are charged to subscribe to the law which punishes the renunciation of one’s own blood. …

Moreover, I would like a law which would assist widows and young girls deceived by the false promises of a man to whom they were attached; I would like, I say, this law to force an inconstant man to hold to his obligations or at least [to pay] an indemnity equal to his wealth. …

I offer a foolproof way to elevate the soul of women; it is to join them to all the activities of man; if man persists in finding this way impractical, let him share his fortune with woman, not at his caprice, but by the wisdom of laws. Prejudice falls, morals are purified, and nature regains all her rights. Add to this the marriage of priests and the strengthening of the king on his throne, and the French government cannot fail.

Citation

Source 6 – United States Declaration of Independence, 1776 (30:30)

Guiding question

Explain the extent to which the revolutionary transformations of the long nineteenth century impacted communities and networks.

Excerpt

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,—That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes. … But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.—Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. …

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature …

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers. …

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures. … For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury. …

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. …

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. …

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States …

Citation

Source 7 – Pasquinades against the government, c. 1770–1781 (36:20)

Guiding question

Explain the extent to which the revolutionary transformations of the long nineteenth century impacted communities and networks.

Excerpt

Pasquinade 1

Pluck this thieving old gallo,² cut up some juicy morsels, and into the river with him. There’s no feigning ignorance or saying his downfall was sudden, as this is the third warning. Such a shame that many will pay for this thieving scoundrel.

the miserable
conniving
corregidor³
the Devil take this
cursed fellow,

pluck this evil gallo
these gentlemen
are the thieving
royal officials

and after these will follow those who the nineteenth of this month,
are [guilty] and those who are not it will turn out badly for who-
ever does not defend the patria (nation).

Pasquinade 2

Long live God’s law and the purity of Mary! Death to the king of Spain and may Peru come to an end! For he is the cause of such iniquity. If the monarch knows not the insolence of his ministers, the public larceny, and how they prey upon the poor, long live the king and death to all these public thieves since they will not rectify that which is asked of them. This is the second warning and there is no rectification. We will weep with grief since because of two or three miserable thieves among us many innocent lives will be lost and as much blood will run through streets and squares as the streets of La Paz can hold water! The nineteenth of this month, let him beware who does not defend the creoles.

Citation

2 A gallo is literally a rooster, but in this context could mean “a conceited person”—like calling someone “cocky” in English. Conveniently, the person the writer is criticizing is named Bernardo Gallo.
3 A corregidor was a local administrative and judicial official in the Spanish Empire.

Source 8 – The Native Question, 1857 (39:50)

Guiding question

Explain the extent to which the revolutionary transformations of the long nineteenth century impacted communities and networks.

Excerpt

It is becoming more and more evident, even to the most incredulous, that a crisis in native affairs is coming on. We do not, indeed, believe that a King will be actually made; but it is clear that a great change is approaching, either for good or for evil, in the relations between the races. The natives thoroughly understand what they want, and it is not a play-thing that they seek. They are resolved upon making an effort to preserve their existence, not only as a race, but as they understand it, a nation, before they shall be overnumbered, and therefore out-mastered by the whites. … [T] heir feeling towards the Queen is still most loyal … but … [t]hey look back upon sixteen years of European rule, and observe that of all the successive-Governments, not one has presented a fixed or even consistent line of policy …

But let us disabuse ourselves at once of the idea that the Maori is to be any longer controlled through articles in the native newspaper, by good advice from magistrates, or even missionaries. … The principles upon which the relations between the races shall be henceforth carried on are demanded. If the European does not lay them down, the Maori will.

In our present number, we confine ourselves to recounting what took place on the occasion of the rival flags being displayed. … 

The place of meeting was Rangiriri, the centre of Waikato; and the occasion was the feast given by the tribes of lower Waikato to their brethren of Waipa and Horotia. …

After the usual reception, Ngatihaua … planted the flag of the new dynasty. His Majesty’s color was a white flag with a red border, and two red crosses … upon it the words, Potatau King of New Zealand. …

On the Tuesday, at about ten o’clock, a long line of Maories … defiled from the southern end of the town, headed by Ngatihaua, bearing the flag of the new king. … They seemingly did not anticipate much opposition. … But at last a Union Jack was seen displayed on a little hill about a quarter of a mile off. Another soon appeared a short distance inland. …

The most remarkable [speeches] were the following, of which the main points have been carefully preserved.

Paora: God is good; Israel were his people; they had a king; I see no reason why any nation should not have a king if they wish for one. The Gospel does not say that we are not to have a king. It says, ‘Honor the king—Love the brotherhood.’ Why should the Queen be angry? We shall be in alliance with her, and friendship (whakahoa) will be preserved. The Governor does not stop murders and fights among us. A king will be able to do that. Let us have order so that we may grow as the pakehas [Europeans] grow. Why should we disappear from the country? New Zealand is ours; I love it.

Takirau: That is the road—that word ‘friendship.’ But it applies to both sides. Our king will be friendly with the Queen. Their flags will be tied together. … If I asked the Queen to leave her throne I should be wrong; but all I ask is that the dignity which now rests on her should rest on our king. …

Wiremu Te Awaitaia: … I promised the first Governor, when he came to see me, and I promised all the rest, that I would stick … to him, and be a subject of the Queen. I intend to keep my promise, for they have kept theirs. They have taken no land. Mine was the desire to sell, and they gave me money. Why do you bring that new flag here? … I am content with the old one. It is seen all over the world, and it belongs to me. I get some of its honor!

Citation

Source 9 – “The Borinqueña”, 1868 (44:55)

Guiding question

Explain the extent to which the revolutionary transformations of the long nineteenth century impacted communities and networks.

Excerpt

Arise, Puerto Rican!
The call to arms has sounded!
Awake from this dream,
for it is time to fight!

Doesn’t this patriotic call
set your heart alight?
Come! We will be in tune
with the roar of the cannon.

Come, the Cubans
will soon be free;
the machete will give him his
liberty.

Now the war drum
says with its sound,
that the countryside is the place
of the meeting...
of the meeting.

The Cry of Lares⁴
must be repeated,
and then we will know:
victory or death.

Beautiful Puerto Rico
must follow Cuba;
you have brave sons
who wish to fight.

Now, no longer
can we be unmoved;
now we do not want timidly
to let them subjugate us.

We want
to be free now,
and our machete
has been sharpened.

Why then have we
been so sleepy
and deaf
to the call?

There is no need to fear, Puerto Ricans,
the roar of the cannon;
saving the motherland
is the duty of the heart.

We no longer want despots,
may the tyrant fall now;
the unconquerable women
also will know how to fight.

We want liberty,
and our machetes
will give it to us...
and our machetes
will give it to us...

Come, Puerto Ricans,
come now,
for freedom awaits us
anxiously,
freedom, freedom!

Citation

4 The first major revolt against Spanish rule in Puerto Rico in 1868.

Source 10 – Oath taken by members of Young Italy, 1832 (47:50)

Guiding question

Explain the extent to which the revolutionary transformations of the long nineteenth century impacted communities and networks.

Excerpt

Young Italy is a brotherhood of Italians who believe in a law of Progress and Duty, and are convinced that Italy is destined to become one nation,—convinced also that she possesses sufficient strength within herself to become one, and that the ill success of her former effort is to be attributed not to the weakness, but to the misdirection of the revolutionary elements within her,—that the secret of force lies in constancy and unity of effort. They join this association in the firm intent of consecrating both thought and action to the great aim of reconstituting Italy as one independent sovereign nation of free men and equals. … Young Italy is Republican. … Because theoretically every nation is destined, by the law of God and humanity, to form a free and equal community of brothers; and the republican is the only form of government that ensures this future. … Each member will, upon his initiation into the association of Young Italy, pronounce the following form of oath, in the presence of the initiator: In the name of God and Italy;

In the name of all the martyrs of the holy Italian cause who have fallen beneath foreign and domestic tyranny; By the duties which bind me to the land wherein God has placed me, and to the brothers whom God has given me; By the love—innate in all men—I bear to the country that gave my mother birth, and will be the home of my children; By the hatred—innate in all men—I bear to evil, injustice, usurpation, and arbitrary rule; By the blush that rises to my brow when I stand before the citizens of other lands, to know that I have no rights of citizenship, no country, and no national flag; By the aspiration that thrills my soul towards that liberty for which it was created, and is impotent to exert; towards the good it was created to strive after, and is impotent to achieve in the silence and insolation of slavery; By the memory of our former greatness, and the sense of our present denigration. By the tears of Italian mothers for their sons dead on the scaffold, in prison, or in exile; By the sufferings of the millions,—

I, … believing in the mission entrusted by God to Italy, and the duty of every Italian to strive to attempt its fulfillment; convinced that where God has ordained that a nation shall be, He has given the requisite power to create it; that the people are the depositaries of that power, and that in its right direction for the people, and by the people, lies the secret of victory; convinced that virtue consists in action and sacrifice, and strength in union and constancy of purpose: I give my name to Young Italy, an association of men holding there same faith, and swear: To dedicate myself wholly and forever to the endeavor with them to constitute Italy one and free, independent, republican nation; to promote by every means in my power—whether by written or spoken word, or by action—the education of my Italian brothers towards the aim of Young Italy; towards association, the sole means of its accomplishment, and to virtue, which alone can render the conquest lasting; to abstain from enrolling myself in any other association from this time forth; to obey all the instructions, in conformity with the spirit of Young Italy, given me by those who represent with me the union of my Italian brothers; and to keep secret of these instructions, even at the cost of my life; to assist my brothers of the association both by action and counsel—NOW AND FOREVER. This is I do swear, invoking upon my head the wrath of God, the abhorrence of man, and the infamy of the perjurer, if I ever betray the whole or a part of this my oath.

Citation

Source 11 – Travels in the Slavonic provinces of Turkey-in-Europe, 1866 (53:30)

Guiding question

Explain the extent to which the revolutionary transformations of the long nineteenth century impacted communities and networks.

Excerpt

THE story of Serbia consists of four parts—growth, glory, fall, and rising again. Here we may recognise in her fortunes something in common with those of Russia and of Spain; nations that, like her, were once bowed low before the blast of Mussulman [Muslim] conquest, and when that blast had spent its strength, gradually but steadily raised their heads.

The four epochs of Serbian history have each its representative man. The first of these is Stephen Némania, who, in the middle of the twelfth century, welded several detached and vassal governments into an independent monarchy. The second is Czar Stephen Dūshan, who, in the middle of the fourteenth century, raised the monarchy into an empire, and aimed to defend the whole peninsula against the attacks of Turkish Mussulmans, by uniting its peoples in one strong realm. The third epoch is marked by the fall of Czar Lāzar, who, in 1389, lost the decisive battle of Kóssovo; after which Serbia became tributary to the Turks. The fourth epoch dates from the opening of the present century, and is identified with the name of Milosh Obrenovic. An insurrection of Serbian rayalis had ended in disaster, and its heroic leader, Kara George, worn out and dis-heartened, fled into Austria. Then Milosh took up the lost game, tore from under the Turk a fragment of Serbian land on the south bank of the Danube, and made that fragment the germ of a European state. …

It seems that the Slavonic tribes which first filled the countries between Trieste and Thessalonica called themselves Slovieni, or Slaviani. Of their descendants remain to the present day the Slavonic Bulgarians, and the Slovenes inhabiting Carinthia, Carniola, and part of Styria. Both these peoples regard themselves as older tenants of the south Danubian regions than the Croato-Serbs, whose settlement intervenes between them; and their dialects, though now differing from each other, show more resemblance to the most ancient written form of Slavonic speech than is presented by the Serbian tongue. …

In spite of all imperfections and weaknesses, she had shown herself, up to the time of the Turkish onslaught, able to hold her own, and to keep pace with the age. … It was the misfortune of Serbia, that while still in the unsettled and uncentralized condition common to most European states in the middle ages, she should be exposed to a tremendous shock from without; a shock which she came in for on account of her position right in the line of the Mussulman wave. … Even when the Turk could not complete his conquests, he forced the assaulted nations to relinquish every object in life except that of a struggle for freedom; during which struggle their resources were exhausted and their infant civilisation destroyed. …

The Serbians, as a nation, can hardly, however, have been demoralized … they preserved their simple manners, and to this day the family tie is held far more sacred among them and the Bulgarians than among any other races in their neighbourhood. …

A glance at the districts still ruled by Turkey,—at Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Old Serbia,—shows us at the present day (1867) ruins and poverty, lack of communications, lack of cultivation, life and property far from secure, and all classes hating the Government and each other. The Christian, too, still labours under palpable disadvantages on account of his creed. But let us look back to the times before Mahommedan prestige declined and the Turk was obliged to admit the interference of European agents. In those days Christian worship was held underground; the Christian had to dismount in presence of the Turk; his women dared not go abroad without the Mussulman disguise (still a matter of necessity in some towns); nor durst [dared] the rayah display in dress or dwelling any ensign but that of meanness and poverty. Worst of all, the flower of the Christian youth was exacted as “tribute” to swell the ranks of the enemies of their kindred and their faith. …

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